Blog | The Word Witch Tarot

Jan 21, 2019
3 min

Full Lunar Eclipse in Leo: forged in your own fire

Tonight’s total lunar eclipse in Leo caps off the last of the Leo-Aquarius eclipses that began back in 2016. Leo moons always have a full-hearted feel to them, but this one is extra celebratory as it marks the fulfillment of the growth cycle that we’ve been on in the last two-plus years, one characterized by individual self-actualization (Leo) and revolutionizing the collective consciousness (Aquarius). As such, this is prime time to consider how your sense of self has grown

New Moon in Scorpio: Constantly Becoming

Claire Burgess

Nov 8, 2018
2 min

New Moon in Scorpio: Constantly Becoming

Today, the moon is new in Scorpio, offering an invitation to get intentional about our work of becoming. We’re always evolving, always transforming. The cells of our bodies are constantly dying and regenerating. We are constantly rebirthing. In the world outside of our bodies, we can choose to partner with our own transformation, usher in necessary change, be the doulas of our own rebirths. I offer my Scorpio spread to you today, recycled from the full moon six months ago, wi

Claire Burgess

Oct 31, 2018
3 min

Samhain: a Lineage of Spirit

All Hallows Eve, Samhain, All Saints Day, Day of the Dead, Halloween. Today has many different names in many different traditions, but they all have something essential in common. Today, we honor the cycle. Today, we embrace the dark. Today, we celebrate the dead. I revere today as Samhain (pronounced sow-in), the ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the year, the time when the veil between worlds is thinnest. Falling halfway between the fall equinox and the winter sols

Claire Burgess

Oct 8, 2018
4 min

New Moon in Libra: Tip the Scales

Last week on Instagram, I wrote about how current events have triggered old traumas in me, how they keep rising up in front of me on waves of despair and rage, and so many of you shared that you’re experiencing the same. Also last week, my partner ran into another one of the many bureaucratic nightmares our society foists on trans people, and through his tears he told me that the pain and anger moving through him felt m o r e than him, felt generational. Not generational thro

Autumn Equinox (Mabon): seeds of the harvest

Claire Burgess

Sep 22, 2018
3 min

Autumn Equinox (Mabon): seeds of the harvest

Happy equinox, friends! Today, the hours of day and night are balanced. The northern and southern hemispheres receive equal sunlight as the Sun traces directly over the equator, perpendicular to the Earth. This is a time of balance, of the harmony of light and dark, Sun and Moon, outer and inner. (There’s a reason that the Sun enters Libra, the cosmic equalizer, at the September equinox every year!) After today, the days will lengthen in the southern hemisphere, giving way to

Claire Burgess

Sep 9, 2018
4 min

New Moon in Virgo: Do Good Work

This new moon in Virgo is about baby steps. It’s about digging our toes and fingers into the earth and letting it sustain us. It’s about harvesting the new knowledge and insights that have grown tall over the summer, separating the chaff from the wheat, and readying the millstone for grinding. This is the first new moon since the summer’s eclipses, and now it’s time to process all that’s happened, to turn it into something that will nourish us. This new moon, we make bread. A

Full Moon in Pisces: Surrender to the Dream

Claire Burgess

Aug 26, 2018
4 min

Full Moon in Pisces: Surrender to the Dream

This summer has been a struggle. For me, for most of my friends, for many of you. We’ve risen to challenges and surmounted obstacles. We’ve fought battle after battle at work and at home, online and IRL, with others and with ourselves. We’ve held ourselves open and accountable through 7 retrogrades (8 if you count Chiron) and 3 eclipses, trying our damnedest to listen and learn and figure out how to grow into an existence that feels right and true to us. And right now, many o

New Moon Solar Eclipse in Leo: Remember Who the Fuck You Are.

Claire Burgess

Aug 11, 2018
3 min

New Moon Solar Eclipse in Leo: Remember Who the Fuck You Are.

How are you feeling, friends? Worn out? Overwhelmed? Frustrated? Dog-fucking-tired? Me too. This summer of retrogrades and eclipses has taken the wind out of all of us. Pause. Take a deep breath. It’s going to get easier soon. And when it does, all that we’ve learned from the obstacles and challenges of the last three months will come to light. Things will start to make sense again. The raw data we’ve collected during the retrogrades will synthesize into the kind of hard-earn

Full Lunar Eclipse in Aquarius: Showing Up for Collective Healing

Claire Burgess

Jul 27, 2018
4 min

Full Lunar Eclipse in Aquarius: Showing Up for Collective Healing

Friends, total eclipses are always potent, but this Friday’s full lunar eclipse has the potential to open a portal to a new way of being, as individuals and as a collective. Today, we are invited to review how we are showing up for ourselves and for the global community. We are asked to release the hold of oppressive systems, harmful modes of thought, and blocks to progress and healing. We are called to step into the Earth’s shadow—our own shadow—as it is cast on the Moon and

New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer: Cracking the Shell

Claire Burgess

Jul 13, 2018
4 min

New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer: Cracking the Shell

This Cancer new moon teaches us about security and vulnerability. It teaches us about holding and withholding, sharing and protecting. Here, we learn about the cosmic crab that carries its house on its back. We learn about the shell that keeps us safe, impenetrable, hidden. We learn about the soft, emotional insides beneath that shell and all the truths, needs, and wounds that we guard so fiercely there. This partial solar eclipse is going to crack that shell, friends. It’s g

Full Moon in Capricorn: Take Care of Yourself First

Claire Burgess

Jun 27, 2018
3 min

Full Moon in Capricorn: Take Care of Yourself First

I don’t know about you guys, but right now is A LOT. Life, the news, this country, the world . . . it’s enough to make you crawl into your protective Cancer crab shell for good. On top of that, Mars just stationed retrograde on Tuesday, joining Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto, which are all already spinning backward through the skies (with Mercury coming soon). We also have three eclipses this summer: two in July and one in August. But when the horrors and injustices keep

New Moon in Gemini: Reflecting Self-Worth

Claire Burgess

Jun 13, 2018
4 min

New Moon in Gemini: Reflecting Self-Worth

On this new moon in Gemini, we burn off the mental fog. We clear the air by verbalizing our needs. We honor our contradictions. We take a look in the mirror, see past the distortions, and love what we find reflected back at us. Or, if we have a hard time loving what we see, we at least try. Gemini moons can usually be counted on for a lighter vibe, but Gemini’s ruling planet Mercury has just entered the emotional water sign of Cancer on Tuesday, giving this air moon a humidit

Claire Burgess

Jun 8, 2018
5 min

The Star: Hope Hurts

After The Tower Falls: What Next? The Star is well known as a card of hope, calm, and healing after emotional turmoil. I have a special relationship to it as the card of Aquarius (my sun sign) and as corresponding to my favorite number, 17 (which is also my date of birth). The Star has a relationship to my personality card, The Chariot, through the number 7, and my shadow card, The Tower, as the card following in the Major Arcana. But The Star is, curiously, not one that ofte

Full Moon in Sagittarius: Harmonizing the Duality

Claire Burgess

May 29, 2018
4 min

Full Moon in Sagittarius: Harmonizing the Duality

This full moon, we perform alchemy on ourselves. We blend our dichotomous parts to achieve higher truths, synthesize our polarities to enact deep healing, and free ourselves from limiting mindsets that make us doubt our expansive possibilities. With the sun in Gemini, this Sagittarius moon is heavily about the mind. It’s about our ways of thinking and our search for knowing. Sagittarius and Gemini oppose each other on the wheel of the zodiac, but they also complement each oth

New Moon in Taurus: Making the Bull Move

Claire Burgess

May 15, 2018
3 min

New Moon in Taurus: Making the Bull Move

N E W M O O N in T A U R U S U R A N U S ingress into T A U R U S There’s some major astrology happening right now, friends. Hours after the new moon in Taurus, Uranus, the planet of innovation, revolution, & surprises, moves into Taurus for the first time since the 1930’s. The rebel Uranus will shake things up in the fixed earth sign of stability, tradition, & loyalty for most of the next 8 years. The thing is, the grounded, sometimes stubborn Taurus doesn’t like

Full Moon in Scorpio: Healing through Transformation

Claire Burgess

Apr 29, 2018
3 min

Full Moon in Scorpio: Healing through Transformation

Scorpio is transformation. It’s the snake shedding its skin. It’s shadow work and breaking negative cycles. It’s healing, such profound healing, and not in the soft, slow, nurturing way. Other water signs give you hot soup and cough syrup when you’re sick. Scorpio gives you ipecac. This healing is the PURGE, friends. These are the sobs so deep they leave muscle aches. This is gagging on your tears. This is the toxin being forced from the body. This is retching until you feel

Dealing with the Devil: an Interpretation & Spread

Claire Burgess

Apr 25, 2018
4 min

Dealing with the Devil: an Interpretation & Spread

The body is wise. It often knows things before our conscious minds do. It picks up on nonverbal signals, on body language, on scents and pheromones. It alerts us when something’s not right or when danger is near. The body houses our instinct and also our intuition. And sometimes, when we have deep shit bubbling up in us, rising from the unconscious on its way to the conscious, our mood is effected, our sleep interrupted, our appetite off, our wellness suffers. The body lets u

Claire Burgess

Apr 16, 2018
4 min

F*CK THE HUSTLE

Oof. Aries doesn’t fuck around, you guys. My new moon + mercury direct reading (see my last post for details) laid it out r a w and triggered an impromptu blog post/treatise on the hustle, how glorified it is, and how much it f*cking sucks. You ask Aries how to be a boss? Aries tells you how. First off, lets look at those foundational cards: Wanderer of Knives & the Hierophant. The Wanderer shows stunted movement, frustrated thoughts, that nervy itch to RUN. The Hierophant is

Tarot Spread for New Moon in Aries + Mercury Direct in Aries

Claire Burgess

Apr 14, 2018
2 min

Tarot Spread for New Moon in Aries + Mercury Direct in Aries

Tomorrow, April 15th, is big. We have the new moon in Aries, which, with Aries as the first sign of the zodiac and new moons being the start of a new lunar cycle, marks the beginning of the astrological new year for those who track by the moon. Tomorrow, Mercury also stations direct in Aries after being retrograde since March 22nd. Mercury going direct is nothing remarkable in and of itself (it happens 3-4 times a year, after all), but Mercury stationing direct in Aries so cl

Tarot spread for Ostara (Spring Equinox)

Claire Burgess

Mar 20, 2018
2 min

Tarot spread for Ostara (Spring Equinox)

Happy equinox, friends! Today, the light and the dark stand in equal balance, in cosmic harmony. The sun rises directly due East and sets due West. The sun appears to travel across the sky in a straight line rather than a curve. The Earth’s poles point neither towards nor away from the sun. Today is the tipping point when the hours of day begin to rule over the hours of night. From now until the Summer Solstice, the light will grow ever longer and the dark will recede, all pa